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Travel Blogs from Elgin

Today was Monti's day off, so we headed out early to head for Wisconsin. The scenery was pretty much the same as what we had seen for the past few days, corn, soy beans, corn, soy beans, etc. Still pretty, but nothing too different until we got to Lake Geneva, where the scenery changed to beautiful green trees, mixed in with very beautiful wealthy peoples mansions.

We drove through Lake Geneva and head to Holy Hill, which is a church built on top of a hill. We climbed up ...

... had been invited to a late lunch early dinner at Kim and Danny's house (Monti’s sister), so we arrived there about 2pm and enjoyed some great company with Kim and Danny’s neighbours. Everyone is so lovely and welcoming. All the neighbours were extremely sad when we all had to go. They wanted to talk to us all night.

It was fun to be on the road again travelling back to Chicago. We avoided Detroit this time by crossing from Canada to USA further north. Before teaching to border we had to make a stop at Tim Hortons. They are everywhere in Ontario!!! A Canadian icon. Coffee isn't all that good (our opinion!) but the other yummies are pretty good! It was about an 8-9 hour journey and when almost back to Chicago ...

... never to the desolate West. She has camped and canoed, but she is older now and will get bored and upset. When Andrew was a baby, we traveled this same way; but slowly and with a sense of flexibility and humor. She is going to learn a lot and will come back ragged and smarter. I have seen it in my son these past 5 years. We packed the van very differently than in the past. We are doing some experiments in packing. We have bags to gather ...

... fair home in the middle of America packing our '09 Grand Caravan again. We have put nearly 80,000 miles on the thing since we got it. So my first step for this trip was taking it to the mechanic for a tune-up and coolant flush. He also helped me avert disaster by changing the serpentine belt. I know what it is like to be stuck 9000 feet up in the Rockies without the ability to start a car, so I appreciate nipping that problem in the bud.